ysbreker

Movie/TV recommendations

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I thought I'd give myself some movie watching goals for the rest of the year, since I have somehow developed a 400-item watchlist and it takes thought to pick what to see next. I might still pick something else any given day of course.

 

1. All Ingmar Bergman movies -- I'll go with the highest rated ones first, and I'll stop if I end up disappointed by more than one, as I've only seen a couple so far. I loved all of Tarkovsky and since he and Bergman inspired each other I hope I will enjoy most of these a lot.

 

2. Letterboxd Top 100 -- or maybe Rotten Tomatoes* Top 100, or something like that. I'm currently going with Letterboxd as it's easy to see the top with the ones I've seen dimmed out. I notice that Satantango and Shoah are on that list and I have no idea how to approach watching these 7+ hour movies. I hope they are at least divided into chapters of some sorts, but I guess random breaks would also work. It may just be like a TV series binge on steroids?

 

3. 1000 movies marked as seen on Letterboxd -- I'm at 835 and considering my current rate of 30+ movies a month I should hit that. Also I might still remember some movies I've seen already.

 

[edit] * PS Actually I think Letterboxd is replacing RT for me as the go-to place for ratings. Although I haven't made an actual comparison, I feel like I find myself far more in accord with the ratings on that site. I guess it may change once Letterboxd gets more users.

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I am a fan of Tarkovsky and, for the most part, can't stand Bergman. YMMV, naturally, but I wouldn't personally recommend it.

 

I recently made a list of shame on Letterboxd and am in the process of trying to knock most of them out by the end of the year. The list is compiled of every Oscar best picture winner, every IMDB top 250 film, every "essential arthouse" film, every big box office hit I haven't seen. It's more about cultural context than actual shame (I in no way shape or form suspect I will like Avatar even a little bit), but it has been rewarding knocking a lot of stuff off.

 

Then again, it's also made me watch Driving Miss Daisy, so maybe it's a terrible idea.

 

EDIT: Don't know Satantango, but Shoah is episodic.

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Watching Shoah right now, fuck, is it intense.


Ever since watching Son of Saul I've been reading and watching things on the Sonderkommandos and the Holocaust.

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[edit] * PS Actually I think Letterboxd is replacing RT for me as the go-to place for ratings. Although I haven't made an actual comparison, I feel like I find myself far more in accord with the ratings on that site. I guess it may change once Letterboxd gets more users.

 

I never even pay attention to the site averages, just the averages of the 70 people I follow. At this point, since I rarely go to multiplexes and don't read movie news or watch trailers or go on social media, it's not just where I write reviews, it's where I even find out movies exist.

 

EDIT: I just watched Terms of Endearment and it is FUCKING good. It might seem like not your thing, like a thorough mom kind of movie, but it is the greatest possible version of that movie. Every single scene has a surprising moment or joke or detail. Really really wonderful film.

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If you want good ratings, Criticker is the place to go. It bases its ratings on people who rate movies similar to how you rate movies, which means it's almost always spot on. I rate movies on a 1-100 scale and the rating it guesses for any given movie is almost never more than 5 points away from my actual rating.

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I thought I'd give myself some movie watching goals for the rest of the year, since I have somehow developed a 400-item watchlist and it takes thought to pick what to see next. I might still pick something else any given day of course.

1. All Ingmar Bergman movies -- I'll go with the highest rated ones first, and I'll stop if I end up disappointed by more than one, as I've only seen a couple so far. I loved all of Tarkovsky and since he and Bergman inspired each other I hope I will enjoy most of these a lot.

As someone who loves Bergman, I can say with full confidence that this is a bad idea. Bergman made some really, really good movies and a lot of crap. Even the high rated movies are so well regarded for vastly different reasons. Something like Persona is highly rated because he plays with the medium and did something interesting with it, especially for the time. Something like Wild Strawberries is highly rated because it's a well executed version of a then typical type of film -- I think it's among the best of a boring genre, which still leaves it a boring film.

It's more worthwhile to look at what you like about Tarkovsky, and where that's expressed in Bergman's films. Be picky about what you watch. If you don't like portrait shots and monologues and very interior films that examine family relationships very closely, Bergman likely just isn't for you.

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Watched Upstream Color again and liked it just as much second time. Brother didn't care for it though, the div. Did have an interpretation I hadn't thought about though.

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If you want good ratings, Criticker is the place to go. It bases its ratings on people who rate movies similar to how you rate movies, which means it's almost always spot on. I rate movies on a 1-100 scale and the rating it guesses for any given movie is almost never more than 5 points away from my actual rating.

Fixed your link :)

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Point Break. Besides that the plot is seriously flawed, they ruined the movie by adding serious nonsense. As if the insane extreme sports actions people are actually pulling off in real life isn't insane enough they made increasingly ridiculous through the movie. At one point they are racing motor bikes downhill while being chanced by a rock avalanche they created.

Forget the remake, just watch the original.

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Robot cops dropping from drones is going to be the future.

 

I hope

No I don't.

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The Americans is starting its fourth season sooooooooooooooooon. :tup: :tup:  :rubik: :tup: :tup: 

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Yeah, I love The Americans.

 

I can't believe The Venture Bros ends again next week. I wish they made these faster. Last nights Casino inspired episode might be one of my favorites, though I had sort of thought they were going to "go through with it."

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The Big Short is terrible. Terrible. Unless it suddenly gets good in it's second half (I turned it off about 45 minutes in) the love this movie has gotten is baffling. And Adam McKay used to be one of the most consistently great directors of comedies, too. His career is like Sullivan's Travels in real life, except he's getting rewarded for making a "real, serious film". Buh, no thank you.

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Nice. Letterboxd has a mobile app now! Maybe it was available before elsewhere, but I think it appeared for my country's App Store today. Looks good so far, I always wanted the 'hold touch on a movie' interaction.

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I just saw the new Richard Linklater movie, Everybody Wants Some. It is absolutely a successor to Dazed and Confused, but lacks that film's nuance and pathos. I can see the extreme jock-bro factor putting off a lot of people, but it's very good-natured and warm and just an absolutely great time and I highly recommend seeing it in the theater with a crowd. Bound to be a dorm-room hit the way Dazed and Confused was.

 

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I'm so used to Linklater being a ton of moody talking, I guess I've missed this other side of his work. I'm always game for more Linklater, though.

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I finally watched Cooties (a film that got mentioned on here a while back). It  starts off a lot gorier than I had anticipated and the film has no problem with child on child violence. However, by the end it has lost a lot of its initial meanness.

 

I don't want to say too much for fear of spoilers but overall the film is okay there are just better films in the genre and ones with 100% less Alison Pill.

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I'm about halfway into Season 6 of Supernatural. End of Season 5 is when the original showrunner left, and is supposed to be when Supernatural stops being good.

 

I'm still liking it a lot! D:

 

Wonder when I'll hit that wall.

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For some reason I'm not seeing in The Witch what many people are seeing. It was well made, but ultimately felt somewhat too predictable and boring.

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